September 20, 2012

"Then they let down a pail, slowly drew up water with the moon in it and, with a spoon, drank its reflection. Looking down into the well at that moment, they could see the face of their future bridegroom."

(A quote at the end of an essay by Saul Steinberg, found in a fruitless search for a drawing I remember or misremember with "we" and "they" —or is it "Who are they?" — drawn to signify the emotion contained in those words — a search undertaken after writing "So we they are not chomping cheeseburgers simply for sensual pleasure....")

When the moon hits you eye like a big pizza pieThat's amoreWhen the world seems to shine like you've had too much wineThat's amoreBells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-lingAnd you'll sing "Vita bella"Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tayLike a gay tarantella

When the stars make you drool just like a pasta fazoolThat's amoreWhen you dance down the street with a cloud at your feetYou're in loveWhen you walk down in a dream but you know you're notDreaming signoreScuzza me, but you see, back in old NapoliThat's amore

What's wrong with you people (not a question, but an observation). Y'all need to grow a soul. Seriously.

...I thought it was a wonderful look at a culture, probably vanished or vanishing, through a tradition in a folk-tale. An old wives-tale; the good kind.

...a glimpse of something in the heart of a people, pretty and poetic.

And with the core of an essential truth, beautifully self-contained in a two sentence idyll that your imagination could expand upon for awhile, into longer tales of love and hope and tragedy and the mystical.

Like those "simple country villagers" probably meant it for, in the first place.

Which you sophisticated urban modernists apparently recognize not at all.

As KParker points out, the southernmost point of Romania (43 deg N) is too far north to allow anyone to see the reflection of the Moon down a conventional vertical-shaft well. The northernmost 'latitude' of the Moon is about 28.5 degrees.It would have to be a 'well' in the sense of a pond or artesian spring to permit the well visitor to see the Moon's reflection.

As KParker points out, the southernmost point of Romania (43 deg N) is too far north to allow anyone to see the reflection of the Moon down a conventional vertical-shaft well. The northernmost 'latitude' of the Moon is about 28.5 degrees.It would have to be a 'well' in the sense of a pond or artesian spring to permit the well visitor to see the Moon's reflection.

these are not only superstitions but are like the old legends from ancestral times.And there are a lot not only this, which I heard about them, long time ago - more than 40 years - in my childhood in Romania.